This is how my ideal day looks but I can never figure out how it works? So like you walk from 8amish, school from 9-1 then lunch then outdoors till 5? and the house stuff happens around the edges?

Also if you are in a fire zone look at protective clothing to wear during evacuation. Long sleeved clothing and boots for everyone - and hankies or masks for smoke. Make a last resort plan as well as an evacuation plan just in case. Usual advice is to shelter in solid structure and if that becomes compromised move to already burnt ground.

All I have to contribute is make sure you have some bottled water. We thought we would be fine with our rain water tanks but the fire trucks drained the tanks to save the house. Also if you have fire retardant sprayed on your roof you can't drink your tank water. I don't know about well water but I think it would still be smart to have some separate supply in case of contamination.

Change of schedule - DH is off on sick leave I had been planning to do the interval thing of six weeks on 1 off and this was my off week. However getting the bigger organising jobs is going to be harder with DH around so I may just schedule school after all. At lest I did the big clothes sort in dds bedroom which is always a massive job. Five bags of outgrown stuff ready to leave my house!

DH did ours so I don't know all about it. However I know that with a 5kw system most people are topping up power whereas a 10kw system generates enough for an average family (depending on your heating and cooling requirements). Some panels generate better than others on cloudy days. Most panels do best on a moderate sunny day as they become less efficient as it gets hotter. Feed in tariffs vary a lot of you are still on the grid so do your cost estimates carefully. Adding a battery is quite a lot dearer but makes you totally independent. You can now get smart systems that will tell your hot water heater to start beating whenever you are generating more than you use rather than feeding into the grid which can help if you don't get a good deal from your power company. (For is we pay for power at 35c and only get paid for what we generate at 7c so making sure our power usage lines up with our generation makes a huge difference). We used a company called Canadian Solar I think and they were good and professional. The panels need to be cleaned occasionally to maintain peak performance. If you go for battery option you may need to think about location and long term disposal when it's life span is up.

Only if you go completely off grid. You can have solar panels but still be connected to the grid and your power will go out like everyone else's. If you want power to stay on no matter what you need to set up a battery system which is significantly more expensive and means you need to generate enough to cover all your usage. However with the battery system you won't have a power bill at all whereas with a system connected to the grid it depends what kind of feed in rate you get. Another option for backup power though less green is a diesel generator. These have dropped a lot in price and are quite affordable now. They are also reasonably cheap and efficient to run.

Thanks for taking the time to type out the detailed and helpful information. I was wondering if the hatch would fit the textbooks. Mine are definitely not the tidy types...

That top one is what I've been looking at. Helpful to know they've been durable for you. Why is it too small? Oldest is in 5th grade so if it's going to be too small for high school I would be better with something else I guess.

Are your boys still in the age for Gymboree? They seem to be the only socks we've had that are indestructible. in fact some of them are on my third kid now so worth the extra cost?

We are setting up a school room next year. The furniture thread got me thinking. What furniture have you had from IKEA that is fairly indestructible/ durable. We are after desks, bookshelves that kind of stuff. Possibly a low table and some kind of hutch of the desk doesn't have one. We had the MALM drawers and the bottoms fell out eventually but we did overload them a bit and they were chipboard to start with.

I know right?! Glad it's not just me...

We haven't had a lot from IKEA but my gut feel is they have different levels. Some stuff is like $100 a piece, mostly chipboard and meant as a temporary solution. Other stuff is solid timber, metal runners and tends to be dearer. We have about five years out of a set of drawers but to be fair they were meant for clothes and used them to store paper which is heavier or they'd still be ok.

http://www.elledecor.com/life-culture/cleaning-organizing/a7842/lifespan-of-common-home-items/ Apparently this is a guide... I'm not sure whose replacing carpet every five years but it sure isn't us! We've had the same carpet since we moved in 8 years ago and it was old then... I would like to change due to ds allergies but don't seem to have a spare $3k laying around. For a couch they say 7-15 years. Actually even with two decent incomes it's hard to see how the suggested replacement rate works if you are paying a mortgage and raising kids.

Thankyou.

We've basically finished off two couch sets in 15 years. I say finished off though because they were both maybe 10+ years when they came to us. In fact one set had been reupholstered about 5 years before we had it. With the first couch it could have just had new foam cushions and been OK but I'd always hated it anyway and the style didn't match the house at all. We replaced with a second hand one but unfortunately the arms are badly frayed on it. It is an older couch but I had a hard time retraining a couple of my kids not to sit on the arms and the cat claws it. It could probably be reupholstered but the foam is sagging a little too and the cost of repair is likely to equal cost of replacement. And that brings me to the big thing about the stuff that lasted forever. People expected to repair furniture. It was cheaper to repair than replace. Although that said I have read in at least two 100 year old books about furniture being burned on the bonfire pile when it was no longer serviceable so it clearly wasn't a universal thing.

Just the other day I was trying to move a wheeled office chair and slipped half grabbed half sat on the chair and rolled off slightly twisting my ankle. I was on the phone at the time. Glad it wasn't Skype... I've also done the blanket thing... And burnt my pregnancy belly with the iron when I didn't realise my shirt wasn't covering all

I sent the kids out the house and opened Windows but I have no idea if that was the right thing to do. And know I don't mean the software programme stupid autocorrect.

:grouphug: mbelle. That sounds like a very difficult weekend. For us it's Saturday and DH is currently spraying weeds on the farm then we're heading out to a friends event. To be honest, I could have handled a whole day home but we've said we're going so we'll go. I really really do like being at home...

:grouphug: I know that's not the point of the thread but I'm sorry...

Anxiety, overwhelm/exhaustion, frustration Scheduling conflict, clutter and mess, sibling rivalry.

I hope for his own safety he can stop soon. High risk jobs shouldn't be worked over 16 hours, even when the need is urgent.

Yeah I understand the need to make money but one income and three kids makes it hard to buy everything.

Am I the only one that thinks Big Bang theory every time I see this topic?

I did find one which reduces the shipping to $10. That definitely helps.

No I'm in an Adelaide based one but I rarely see much classical education related there. Is there a way to find the group? I find it quite hard to find good used resources.